CTS Blog and Articles

The endurance athlete's source for information on training, nutrition, motivation, strategy, and more.

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Correcting the Biggest Mistake Cyclists and Triathletes Make on Climbs

Weekend Reading: How to go from “Fat and Slow” to “Lean and Fast”

This week has been crazy with Spring Break for the kids, a quick trip to Santa Ynez to drop in on the Spring Training Camp, and preparations for next week’s trip to Belgium for the Belgium Race Experience. Stay tuned for updates on that trip, as it’ll be my first time riding the Tour…

Posted: March 27, 2015

Author: CTS

Recovery Timing for Perfect Intervals

By Jim Rutberg, CTS Pro Coach So, you’re all ready to go out for your workout. You have food in your pocket, your bike is gleaming in the warm sun with a bottle of water and bottle of sports drink, your Smith glasses are sitting in the Giro helmet draped over your handlebars, and your Joule GPS…

Posted: March 25, 2015

Author: CTS

5 Tips to Becoming An Expert At Drafting

Financial advisors will tell you that the way to get (or stay) rich is to not just make more money, but also avoid wasting it. The same is true with how athletes get faster. It’s not just about how much power you can produce or how high you can push your lactate threshold pace….

Posted: March 20, 2015

Author: CTS

7 Springtime Mistakes Endurance Athletes Make

Over the past few years our coaches have spent the latter part of the winter and spring traveling to training camps and events, and that means talking with a lot of inquisitive athletes. And while every athlete is different, there are some topics that seem to come up every spring. If you can avoid…

Posted: March 18, 2015

Author: CTS

Weekend Reading: Were you fast once? Here’s how to get your speed back!

I often talk with my Coaches and Athlete Services staff about trends and themes they’re seeing with athletes. At times there’s an interesting convergence of ideas from athletes despite not knowing each other and living all over the world. Sometimes the commonality makes sense: athletes converge on the idea of weight loss in January….

Posted: March 13, 2015

Author: CTS

Weekend Reading: The Best Workout For Developing SPEED!

As we roll into March, many areas in the Northern Hemisphere are already in the race and event season and it’s not very far away for those of us still stuck in the snow. Winter was a good time to build aerobic and lactate threshold power with interval workouts and indoor training. Now it’s…

Posted: March 6, 2015

Author: CTS

Causes, Prevention, and Treatment of Cramping

By Chris Carmichael Endurance sports are all about pushing yourself and testing your limits. Sometimes your brain has to step in and protect you from yourself, like when you bonk and your brain conjures up nausea in an effort to get you to slow down and address the problem. Other times your body skips…

Posted: March 4, 2015

Author: CTS

Weekend Reading: The Wall Street Journal Says You’re Drinking Too Much During Exercise. Are they right?

It’s back! There are a few article topics that pop back up into mainstream media every year or two, like “too much exercise will kill you” and “you shouldn’t eat carbohydrates during exercise”. This week it was the “you’re drinking too much during exercise” chestnut that made it into The Wall Street Journal. There’s…

Posted: February 27, 2015

Author: CTS

These are the 4 Data Points You Need to Focus On

Athletes generate more data than ever, and the number of ways to slice and dice the information continues to expand. There are times when information overload can do you more harm than good, and most commonly that time is right in the middle of your workout. My advice is to focus on a smaller…

Posted: February 25, 2015

Author: CTS

Weekend Reading: 5 Things You Need to Fix to Go Faster!

I hate wasting energy and it bothers me to no end to see athletes do things that are self-defeating. You spend so much precious time and effort developing fitness and building your capacity to produce power, and then you waste that fitness through poor decision making on the bike. To go faster you need…